Reactions to Parker Moving On
by Musicgirl xxx
Summary: Parker has moved on after season 1. This is a collection of stories related to my other story Parker Moves On. Hope they are ok. T because I'm paranoid about writing something under the wrong rating.
1. Sophie's POV

This is a little continuation of my other story Parker Moves On showing some of Sophie's point of view. I hope to add more to this. I don't own anything.

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Sophie was excited, no she was beyond excited. She had got the leading role in the Sound of Music and she had invited her old team to come and watch her including her biggest fan, Nate. As much as Sophie hated to admit it, she had missed them all terribly and at point she found herself looking for Eliot to get her out of a sticky situation, Nate to plan a con on a mark, Hardison to be in her ear proving her with the information she needed and Parker to emerge out of vents, jump of buildings without fear or come out with some quirky and baffling comment that had everyone confused. They had become so close they were like a family and leaving them behind was so hard but they all knew it was what had to be done.

Sophie had been listening out for rumours or information on them all to make sure they were all ok and alive at the very least. She knew she was like the mother hen of the team wanting to check up on everyone and make sure that they were all safe and well even when they were together but she thought that she had formed the strongest attachments to the group of thieves out of all of them meaning she needed to reassure herself that they were all safe. Well the strongest attachment apart from maybe Parker. Parker was the oddball of the group or twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag as Eliot like to call her it she seemed to form strong attachments to people when she let them in, she just had strange ways of showing it. Sophie wasn't sure how she was taking the split, Parker could seem very tough but when it came to emotions she could be very vulnerable and needed reassurance. Also she was the one that Sophie had the most trouble keeping tabs on. She knew Eliot was somewhere in Pakistan and that it was dangerous but she knew he could hold his own and frankly there wasn't much she could do to help there so she kept an eye out for information and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she heard he was home safe. Hardison may have been hacking some pretty big stuff but he was too good to get caught and Sophie knew where he was thanks to her contacts and so she was prepared to go help him if need be. They may not work together any more but Sophie was very protective if her team. Nate was by far the easiest to keep tabs on, he got sober and then moved into a little apartment above a bar and surprisingly stayed sober. Apart from that he did very little and anyway Sophie caught up with him a couple of times to see how he was doing anyway.

Parker was her problem though. She knew that Parker was trained to drop off of the map but she had to have crossed paths with some people somewhere and surely Sophie's contacts would have been able to find that kind of information but no. There was the occasional report of a sighting somewhere in some country but they were scattered around the globe and Sophie didn't think Parker would want to travel that far. Another thing that had Sophie worried was that there were very few big thefts around the world and in many break ins nothing was taken or the stolen items were given back. That was not like Parker at all and that had Sophie worried. She always fairly sure Parker was still alive and Nate told her not to worry, arguing that maybe Parker couldn't go back to being the bad guy or girl in her case and had stopped stealing by put Sophie wasn't sure. Still she kept her eyes out for her and kept an ear open for rumours just in case something came up.

Her play, Sophie decided would be a perfect opportunity to get the team back together and to let her check that everyone really was safe and well. She couldn't deny that she had been bored and she knew that Nate missed the trill of the chase as well and she was fairly confident that if she brought the team back together then they would fall back into their old pattern of jobs. She once again had to use her contacts to get the invites out and she wasn't even sure if they would reach their intended recipients but slowly she got conformations back that they had received them and that they would come. She got Nate's first then a while later Hardison's and then Eliot's a week before the show but the one reply she didn't get was Parker. It had been passed from pillar to post. It she had been told that it had finally been delivered as best they could for Parker to find it as she never left forwarding addresses so they didn't know if it would be picked up and Sophie was left feeling disappointed and like she had failed, as she assumed that Parker wasn't coming.

Her realisation was confirmed when on the opening night she entered the lobby of the theatre to find Nate, Eliot, and Hardison all staring at each other but no little blonde thief. Her lack of prescience had been noticed by the others but they all seemed to hold out a little bit of hope that she may be late or already there somewhere. Sophie waited as long as she could but finally had to rush off backstage but not before arranging to have drinks afterwards and telling them to tell Parker when they saw her. When. She was trying to optimistic and keep her hopes up but she was slowly resigning herself tot the fact that the little blonde thief either didn't get the invite or she just didn't want tot see them again. The empty seat next toe Eliot where she should have been made Sophie's heart sink a little before she pushed it to the back of her mind and carried on with her performance. She felt the euphoric high when she finished until she remembered that there was one member of their little mismatched team missing, a very bubbly, thieving, important part missing. After taking her bows she headed back to her dressing room where she was stopped at the door by one of the stagehands who handed her a letter. Slightly confused as to who would have written her a letter already, she retreated into her dressing room to read it in private. It read:

_Sophie, _

_Thanks for the invitation, you may not have seen me but I was there._

_You were great._

_I know you've been looking for me and I'm sorry I couldn't speak with you but I am safe. _

_If you don't believe me get Hardison to check the footage of the security camera I the passage way to the sound technicians. _

_Say hi to the team for me and hope you all stay well. _

_Parker _

Sophie scrambled to get changed quickly and rushed out of her dressing room clutching the letter. She checked the theatre several times but the was no sign of Parker left or that she had ever been there. She hurried to the lobby to meet the rest of the team and immediately demanded to know if they had seen Parker. She got three variations of congratulations and then commiseration that Parker hadn't shown up with Nate and Hardison sad and disappointed and Eliot angry at her for not showing and upsetting Sophie like this. Sad that they would believe Parker would leave them like that but understanding why they would think so she showed them the letter clutched in her hand whilst never letting go if it as though it was the last link she had to Parker and she wasn't going to let go of it. Hardison was straight on his phone hacking security and checking the camera feeds until he found the one that Parker had specified and rolling it back to the time period they couldn't believe it when the little blonde thief deliberately appeared in the camera shot and looking directly at the camera waved and smiled as though she were looking right at them and not through a camera. They soon found that apart from that one clip there was no other evidence she had ever been there.

Despite several more searches and a scan of the people outside, there were no further leads on where Parker was, not that they expected there to be really, if Parker didn't want to be found then she wouldn't be found. They trudged back to the bar, moods damped if they weren't already by Sophie's singing but none of them could shake the feeling that they were being watched although they couldn't pinpoint from where. In the bar, Sophie mourned the reviews of her performance and they decided to pull another job, holding some hope that maybe Parker would join them but knowing that they were better as a team and a unit than they were alone. The mystery arrivals of the evidence they needed throughout their con confirmed that Parker had been watching than and following them but she never showed her face again and they weren't entirely sure how she managed to do all of the work without being seen once. They continued to work together after that but they never replaced Parker, getting help where they needed it and hoping that she would return. Though they didn't see her after that day that wasn't the last they would see of Parker.


	2. Nate's POV

I don't own leverage. Sorry if this is bad and for any mistakes.

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If Sophie was classes as the mother hen of the group then Nate was most definitely the father of the group, strict with the 'kids' when they needed to be reprimanded for something or steered back to the right path, a good listener to any problems they had when he wasn't drunk and the father who organised all these fun adventures for the family. They knew that Nate was using them to fill the gaps and wide spaces left by the death of his son Sam and then by splitting from his ex-wife Maggie but they needed him all in their own way as much as he needed them so they didn't mind so much. He may have been drunk most of the time they were together before they were forced to split up after the two David's job but he was a surprisingly perceptive drunk and he still formed strong connections to the team despite his adamant denials that he didn't need them and that he would be fine on his own. In the end it was with their memories in his mind that he got himself sober and they were the reason he was determined to stay that way.

Nate had seen the way the team had bonded and how much they relied on each other for support and back up in areas they weren't as strong, allowing the others to see their weaknesses which for people like them who had been so private and had worked alone their whole lives had shown great attachment. It was this that made Nate keep an eye on all of his team after he called the split regrettably. He knew it would have a big impact on the team, on some more than others, and he just hoped they wouldn't do anything stupid or too dangerous in the time where they were alone with no backup to help them out. Nate had been closest to Sophie, having known her for a long time and having a personal connection to her and so he was unsurprised to find her close by to him when he was finally sober, no doubt keeping an eye on him and making sure he didn't relapse or cause more trouble than he could get himself out of. Whilst he didn't plan on doing much that could get him into trouble, he appreciated the sentiment, or maybe just the person in particular having enough interest to look out for him not that he would ever admit to that. It was nice for him to have a team member close by and when he was feeling particularly lonely he was comforted by her presence but it also made hI'm think about the three 'kids' of the team and hope that they were coping well.

He was very aware that Sophie was going all mother hen on them and keeping track of them as best she could but she wasn't aware he knew and seemed keen to keep in secret and whilst he knew she would tell him if one of them was in trouble and needed help, he couldn't help but use his old contacts from his days chasing them all separately to try and keep an eye on them. Hardison was surprisingly easy to track despite being a hacker and spending most of his days holed up in a room, or maybe Nate was just getting to know them and their habits better. He watched Hardison grow bored and even hack the Pentagon and look for national secrets but even though he seemed to miss the team as much as Nate admittedly did himself, he appeared to be coping just as Nate thought he would. Hardison hadn't formed as strong of an attachment to the team yet as others had and despite being integrated he still felt comfortable working alone. Nate was surprised but pleased to see that he seemed to have had an effect on the man as Hardison no longer seemed to be doing so much illegal work or using it for any malicious purposes any more. He must have had more of an effect on the team in his drunken state than he thought he had.

Eliot was one that Nate wasn't too worried about. While he knew that Eliot had actually formed quite strong attachments to the team and felt strongly compelled to protect them, Eliot was a master at dealing with, ignoring or hiding his feelings and if anyone could handle the separation with seeming ease then it would be him. Nate knew, however, that the split was affecting him more than he let on and that he missed the team as much as the rest did but he could cope as he always had before and seemed determined to prove that and to restore his reputation to use in the future if his activities in Pakistan were anything to go by.

No, Nate wasn't worried about Hardison or Eliot, he knew as hurt they may feel by the split that they would be able to cope and get on with their lives, Nate was worried about their little crazy blonde thief, the girl he thought of as the daughter he never had, Parker. Parker had been the most detached and the frostiest to the team at the start but that was just her defence barrier against getting hurt again. Parker had been hurt too much in the past to let people in easily but the longer they worked together the more the thief seemed to let them in, letting them see her methods and her weaknesses, something she had allowed very few to see ever before and the team should have felt very privileged by how much Parker allowed them to see of herself but as Nate realised now, they had taken her friendly, open bubbly persona for granted and now that was the thing Nate had to admit he missed the most. Parker, without realising it, had a way of cheering up the whole team with her antics as much as they tried to hide it and she was the life and innocence at times of the team. Parker had let the team into her heart though and there in lay Nate's fears as he could see her attachment to them and it had only occurred to him after the split itself how Parker would see this. The team splitting up was like them abandoning her like so may foster parents had and this would be what would cut Parker the deepest and Nate worried about how she would cope. His worry was only exacerbated hey the blank his contacts were turning up when he tried to track her. Now he knew that if she didn't want to be found then Parker could drop off the map and not be seen but she would rarely ever do it for that long and he dreaded to think of the threat that could be after her if that was the case. Another worry for him was the lack of thefts and the reports of thefts where the items were given back. That wasn't Parker's MO at all and he became to fear that she had been killed or captured. The lack of rumours at all for her was disturbing, it was almost as though people had been threatened into silence but he didn't want to go down that route of thought for fear of what that might mean.

He had kept up his surveillance but with still no luck in finding the missing and elusive Parker although there were slightly more reports of thefts which put his mind at ease somewhat as he hoped these meant Parker was safe and well and coping. Sophie's invite to her musical the Sound of Music had him wanting to find an excuse but he had to go really and he was further persuaded when he found out that Sophie had invited the rest of the team. It would be a subtle chance for him to check that they all were truly ok and he hoped that Parker wouldn't be able to refuse an invitation from Sophie knowing she would face her ire if she didn't show and that would give him a chance to confirm that she was alive and find out what she had been doing in the six months the team had been split.

Nate approached opening night with more enthusiasm that he usually would have for one of Sophie's shows, she truly was an awful actress on stage and he knew for a fact her singing was worse, and Sophie would have been suspicious had she not been so excited about her 'big break' or as Nate knew it was being able to see the team again. Secretly he was pleased to hear Sophie suggest drinks after although he didn't show it as he looked around the cosy lobby in search of a bouncing blond head of his favourite thief in the crowd. He became more and more worried as he failed to spot her in the crowds of people and sad that she didn't show when the rest of the team made an effort. It was clear they were all holding out hope that she was late and they were all clearly worried for her but as the show started they all began to accept that she wasn't going to show. The mood deflated and was crushed further by the performance without the normal attempts at positive comments for Parker.

They trudged out at the end and Nate thought he caught a glimpse of blonde hair through the crowds but it was gone in an instant and Nate had to write it down to wishful thinking. The three men stood in near silence, each lost in their own thoughts, waiting for the grifter to emerge and when she did just that her hurried step and face full of emotions so unusual for her made them all look for the threat. The piece of paper. Crumpled from her clutch was shoved into their faces whist still holding on to it like it was a lifeline and Nate began to understand that after he saw the message and the signature. Reading the note and seeing the footage that Hardison had found caused a wave of relief to wash over Nate before he was hit with the disappoints ce that she wouldn't even be bothered to see them and speak to them herself. There had to be something going on with Parker but what he just didn't know.

The rest of the case was a bit of a blur for Nate after the attempt on his life and the mystery appearances of evidence they needed just at the right times with the latter confirming Parker's presence at some point and the former leaving Nate a bit jittery and on and for a long while after the case was over. It became clear a few cases in that Parker had left Boston when no more evidence turned up and there were no more notes. Nate had to admit he was a little disappointed that she didn't leave him a note just to let him know she was alive and well but he figured that she assumed they had all read the note to Sophie or at least he hoped that was the case as he didn't like the other option very much. Despite the need for a thief a lot of the time, Nate couldn't find it in himself to replace her, especially not when he felt partially responsible for her disappearance in the first place, and so they got help when and where they needed it and left her spot open on the team for if she ever decided to return. It was the consensus of the team that they would set out to find her one day but they would have to leave her be for the while, if she didn't want to be found then she wouldn't be and that first case in Boston wouldn't be that last time they would see Parker.


	3. Hardison and Eliot's POV

Eliot and Hardison had both been busy in the time the team had spent apart doing what they did best and trying to restore their reputations that had slipped slightly whilst they had been with the team. Both were upset by the split although neither wanted to admit it especially Eliot, although neither really had anyone to admit it to anyway. What they did was dangerous in different ways but they were both so good at their jobs that neither got caught when they didn't want to be or hurt too badly. They worked on separate projects the whole time but both secretly were tring to keep an eye on the team.

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Hardison was sure that nothing could beat his computer skills. No one could hide from the technological world completely and if there was one little trace of them then Hardison was going to find them. Nate was horrifyingly easy to find and Hardison was really going to have to have a word with him again about protecting himself better and stop him from putting a metaphorical target on his back whilst there was none of them around to protect him.

Sophie was a little harder to find as a grifter but he thought she would be near Nate and there was some activity on some of her aliases that he could track. She was still grifting at times but she seemed to be doing ok for herself and she and Nate kept in touch at any rate so he was there if she needed him. Eliot, Hardison was less worried about, he could take care of himself very well and this was confirmed when he heard his name in connection to the hunky stuff he had found going on in Pakistan. Hardison kept an eye in him and had to admit that he was relieved when he saw that he was back it the states safely and relatively unscathed for what he had been up to.

The one he had been the most worried about anyway had been Parker. Hardison felt like he had got along well with the little blonde thief and he couldn't deny that he would have liked to have dated her but he knew that she never really returned his feelings for her and was closer to Eliot as both had bonded of the danger and thrill of their jobs despite the fact that Eliot would vehemently deny that and probably hurt you if you ever suggested he was close to the crazy little thief.

Parker had him very worried though. He could find no activity on any know aliases he had for her and he couldn't find any reports of thefts that fitted Parker's MO. For someone who lived for the thrill of the chase and in her case the theft, she couldn't have gone that long without stealing something and Hardison was worried about how their split may have affected the deceptively fragile thief. He had seen how impulsive and vulnerable Parker could be and he knew that the split had been like her family upping and leaving her and with her experience if the system she must have felt abandoned.

Hardison had turned to security cameras to try and track the thief but when you had no clue where to look, it was almost impossible to find her. He caught glimpses of people who could have been Parker but they were scattered all over the globe and he really wasn't sure that she would be travelling that far on her own like this.

When he got the invitation to Sophie's play he initially winced remembering the last time she had attempted to act like that on a stage and wondered if he could accidentally lose the invitation but then he realised that if Sophie was inviting the team then this was the perfect opportunity to see if Parker was alive and well, knowing that she would go if she got the invitation rather than face the rathe of Sophie when she found out Parker was missing. Seeing Nate and Eliot in the lobby had brought back all the memories of the jobs they had done and how well they had worked as a team but he felt a sinking feeling when he didn't see the bouncing blond head that he was looking out for. They all tried to be positive and hoped she was just late or they hadn't seen her yet. But then they were seated and there was still no Parker.

The performance was awful, there was no two ways about it and Hardison spent the whole time trying to convince himself that maybe she hadn't got the invitation and that she just hadn't know but he wasn't doing a very good job. It wasn't until after when he saw the note and found the footage that some of that hope came back. She was alive and by the looks of it well and that settled some his nerves for her but he was still hurt that she didn't show her face again but little did he know he would see the little blonde thief again.

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Eliot was in pains to admit it but he actually missed the team. It just wasn't quite the same doing his job without the snarky comments of Hardison in his ear, with Sophie and Nate bickering and the oddball comments of Parker that threw everyone for six but always seemed to lighten the knew that the others would probably be tracking everyone and so he didn't feel so bad when he did exactly the same to them and he may have left just a few more clues for them than he otherwise might have, but not enough to endanger himself.

Nate and Sophie weren't too hard to track. Nate stayed in the same place for most of the time making very easy to keep tabs on and Eliot knew where Nate went Sophie was never far behind and after finding out that they had met up a few times, he was happier that they would have each other to protect each other although he was worried that he wouldn't be there to save them if they needed it but he carried on with his job regardless, trying to restore a bit of his reputation to make sure he was still feared.

Hardison was just as easy to track, he was like a sitting duck in his apartment that was more like a mansion but he seemed to be doing we'll for himself and so Eliot left him be but kept an eye out for any threats that could be coming his way.

The invitation came out of nowhere to him really as he hadn't expected the team to get back together so soon after they split up but he couldn't deny he wanted to see them again, he just really did not want to see Sophie's acting again. He agreed to put up with it, however, if that meant he could see the team again and reaffirm they were alive and well with his own eyes. There was one in particular that he wanted to see after failing to locate her.

As much as Eliot would deny it, he had probably become closest to the blonde thief of the team as they shared a thrill and danger of their jobs that required a more physical kind of skill and so they had trained together a few time before they split as a team and Eliot was worried about her. He had wanted to follow her, knowing how emotionally fragile she could be but he had a job to do and so he figured he would track her and visit her after his job but his job Rabin and on and he couldn't find any sign of Parker.

He probably came the closest of all of them to finding her as he had been in the same city at the same time at one point and had seen a flash of blonde in the crowd but he hadn't known she was in the area, not knowing where she was at all but holding out hope she was still alive and feeling guilty that he hadn't been able to protect her better in case she was hurt, and it had gone by the time he looked in that direction so he thought nothing of it.

Come opening night he looked for her in the crowd but couldn't see her but he still couldn't shake the feeling that she was there. During the performance her was sure her heard a giggle from the rafters above him and he was sure that when he glanced up he saw a flash of black that looked like a show poking out but when he looked back it was gone. he looked sadly at the empty seat next to him and thought he was imagining things until he saw her waving at the camera when Hardison showed them and he knew she had been up there watching them.

He was sad and angry that she never came to see them or gave them another sign that she was alive and although the mysteriously appearing evidence was clearly the work of Parker there was still no other visual or material evidence that she had been there and he wished that he could see her again and could make sure she was safe. Little did he know he would.


End file.
